Unrealistic for Cong to pass GST in poisonous political atmosphere: Ramesh

Charging Prime Minister Narendra Modi with “poisoning” the political atmosphere,senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said it is unrealistic for the BJP-led NDA government to expect his party to cooperate and facilitate passage of the GST bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Charging Prime Minister Narendra Modi with “poisoning” the political atmosphere,senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said it is unrealistic for the BJP-led NDA government to expect his party to cooperate and facilitate passage of the GST bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

“Murder process is still going on in Meghalaya and Manipur. Government is doing its best to cut and clip the wings of the Supreme Court and I think this is dangerous for our democracy,” the former Union minister alleged.

“Mr Modi wants to silence all opposition. He wants to silence opposition parties and he wants to silence the Supreme Court. This is unacceptable to Indians,” he said.

“There is a certain political environment that is required for bills to be passed and Mr Modi has done everything possible to poison the atmosphere. In this atmosphere to expect the Congress to cooperate, I think it’s been very unrealistic,” the Rajya Sabha member said.

He claimed that the government is looking at the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from the point of view of big industries.

“We are looking at GST from an industry, trade and consumer point of view. We want GST to be not only pro-industry, but also pro-consumer. GST is a major innovation, we want GST. GST will benefit, if properly implemented,” the Congress spokesperson said.

But, he also pointed out that the bill would not usher in “full GST”.

“First of all, it’s not uniform GST...(there is) central GST and state GST. There will be a band. States are free to set their own rates,” he noted.

“Petroleum has been kept out of GST purview for five years, while tobacco, alcohol, electricity and real estate have been kept out permanently. It (GST) is a half-way a house. It’s not a perfect GST, but it’s some GST,” he said.